Americans are moving to smaller towns in the South

By Rebecca Jackson

“Keeping Austin weird” has been more of a slog than locals anticipated. Inundated with Silicon Valley refugees and Manhattan defectors, the Texan city once known for its cool subculture has become a tech metropolis. Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Tesla set up shop there, offering jobs that made it a magnet. From 2010 to 2020 metropolitan Austin’s population grew by more than that of any other big city, by one-third to 2.3m.